Dassault Aviation and Harmattan AI today announce the in-flight realisation of a simulated collaborative engagement between a Rafale F4 and a drone carrying a NAMIB payload, a new electronic warfare product jointly developed by the two manufacturers.

NAMIB is an electronic warfare payload capable of detecting, identifying and locating electromagnetic emissions, including those of anti-aircraft defence systems. It can be boarded by tactical drones, quadcopter type, or fixed-wing with longer endurance. During the demonstration flight, NAMIB discreetly located a radar several tens of kilometres away with high precision. This location was transmitted to the Rafale who then simulated a shooting pass on this target.

The development of NAMIB, launched in January 2026, is one of the components of the strategic partnership between Dassault Aviation and Harmattan AI, whose objective is to integrate advanced autonomous capabilities into the next generation of air combat systems.

"This flight highlights the real and concrete capabilities of multi-field collaborative combat of the Rafale. The architecture of the F4 standard allows you to communicate fluidly with a wide variety of actors, including ground forces, and thus effectively exploit new features, such as those of NAMIB in terms of electromagnetic detection and localisation, explains Eric Trappier, President and CEO of Dassault Aviation. It is also a new illustration of the permanent adaptation of the Rafale to new operational needs and, in this case, to the 'high low mix', i.e. the combination of complex systems with consumable and autonomous effectors".

"Electronic warfare has become a determining factor in operational superiority. With NAMIB, we demonstrate that it is now possible to deploy these capabilities on lightweight autonomous systems, as close as possible to the threat. This success illustrates the complementarity between Dassault Aviation and Harmattan AI, combining the experience of air combat systems with our expertise in autonomy and on-board intelligence. Together, we demonstrate that it is possible to accelerate the integration of disruptive technologies for the benefit of the armed forces and to prepare tomorrow's collaborative combat architectures today," said Mouad M'Ghari, co-founder and CEO of Harmattan AI.